jdb82

Thanks Sam, I'll opt for the off-white option then. Bamburgh had a few different paint jobs whilst it worked up on the North Sunderland Railway - plenty of info about the livery, but nothing that I've found about the inside!

Just a couple of quick updates...... The NER wagon has been soldered together and the corner plates sweated on. All straightforwards - next will be the rest of the strapping before moving onto the under frame. Also, the MW Class L has received it's first drops of colour. Started attacking the cab, but as none of it is removable it's requiring a very steady hand. With plenty of weathering and the roof on, nobody will notice the blemishes and wobbly lines ;-) Still need to do the inside cab walls and the handbrake stanchion. What do you reckon....red or black for the stanchion? And whilst we are at it, what colour do you think the cab interior walls would have been (before the layers of soot built up!)?

Haven't come across them - I'll look them up. Thanks! I'm currently trying to get to grips with making the raised/domed smokebox door. The only way I can think of describing it is a semi-circular, domed door. Tried loads of different ways in Fusion but haven't found one which is quite right yet....

The Xometry version came today......not the finish I was hoping for. Probably down to my choice of material. Maybe OK if the loco has been sitting outside in a snowstorm for a few days

Had the safety valve cover above printed for me from Shapeways in their fine-detail plastic, and I was pleasantly surprised by the detail. The top end of the flutings are only a fraction of a millimetre deep, and this detail has been retained. Apologies for the grainy photo......average camera-phone and poor lighting hasn't done the part any favours, so you'll have to take it from me that the quality of the print is good. By way of comparison, and purely for interest value, I also ordered one from Xometry.com which hasn't arrived yet. They don't offer the same material as the Shapeways printed one (fine detail plastic), so I chose something that's hopefully similar. I added the plinth to the 3D model before ordering from Xometry - I realised I'd left it off the Shapeways order. I'll post a piccy of that when it arrives. As previously mentioned, I want to cast these in brass, however I don't want to pay the exorbitant prices for one of the above companies to do that for me! Plans are afoot to construct a home 'foundry', where I can print in castable resin, and then cast in a suitable metal (brass or otherwise). I find a model far more satisfying if it's all metal, rather than having lots of plastic/resin glued to it. Nothing wrong with those that do make use of plastic parts.....just personal preference :-)

The 15xx is quite a solid looking fella!

Since my last post, I have primed the chassis and sandboxes, and they, along with the body are now waiting to get the North Sunderland Railway's light green and black livery. It might be a while before this happens - living in a small house with a young child means I can't use the compressor whilst she is asleep, and I'm generally otherwise occupied when she's awake! I shall wait for a rare moment when she is out with the grandparents and I get to stay at home..... Until then, I've started something a little different, and another first for me. A family member gifted me an NER C10 12 ton goods wagon. Not sure if anyone recognises the manufacturer from the instructions? By all accounts I think it's a fairly basic kit - for example there's not much provided by way of framework under the chassis of the wagon. I'm happy to scratch build this part, however I haven't really found much online. If anyone can point me in the direction of some photos or diagrams, I would appreciate it. I think the kit must have been laying around for a while because it was pretty grubby, and I needed a bit of good old Surgical Spirit to get rid of the residue left behind by the sellotape that attached it to it's protective cardboard in the packaging, as the small mountain of Gariflex droppings will atone to. Once cleaned up, the sides were folded back on themselves and sweated together. Next, the sole bar was folded up. Really, I could have done with a set of folding bars for this, but I don't have any.....I improvised with a block of wood, a length of brass bar and some clamps. It did the job. The floor of the wagon was next - the one provided was a piece of copper; given the rest of the kit is brass, I don't think this was the originally with the kit. Either way, it was too small so I made my own to the correct measurements. Hopefully I'll get this all soldered up sometime tomorrow and I can start work on the underside. I'm not very familiar with the various W irons and brake gear that wagons have, and although I can use the diagram on the instructions, a few extra picks would be useful! I'll have to see what I can find :-)

Can you use Fusion to do 2D work as well? I just use it for the 3D building of the ‘castings’, but I’ve never tried using it for producing etch artwork. I’ll have a look and try it out sometime.

That's both a very nice piece of 3D CAD work, and a lovely model to boot :-) How you do such things in 4mm scale is beyond me. Did you get anywhere with the etch artwork in the end? I'm part way through drawing mine, but have stalled a bit due to a lack of time, as well as a nagging thought that the software I'm using for it really isn't designed for this purpose. In the absence of enough money to afford Auto/Turbo/Corel CAD, I must teach myself something like Qcad instead.....

Problem solved :-) Thanks to a very helpful chap over on WT who gave a perfect set of step by step instructions. I think I'd gone wrong because I did the sketch of the fluting on an offset plane which I then projected onto the 'cone' of the valve cover, rather than creating a tangent plane and doing the sketch from there. Now all I need is a 3D printer..... My next challenge, which I have yet to find a solution to, is creating the semi-circular dished smokebox door. Tried a few methods already, however I thought of a potential solution whilst in the shower this morning...I'll see what I can come up with.

It's certainly beyond an FDM printer - I'm hopeful of experimenting on a friend's resin printer before forking out for one myself. I've had Shapeways print the chimney and the wheel centre and they turned out great, however the safety valve has some pretty thin parts, so we'll have to see. Oh and yes, this is in 7mm

Sounds like a plan - I'll see what they say. Rather than it being the shape of the fluting itself that are tapered (although they are), I was referring to the main body of the valve cover being tapered. But now that you mention it, this could potentially be the cause - I will alter the shape of the flutings so they have parallel sides and see if that makes a difference, so thanks!

I'm relatively new to Fusion 360, and am self taught through various YouTube tutorials. I understand the basics of the 3D design process, but come unstuck when things 'don't work'. Many hours are spent trawling the internet and watching semi-relevant videos, only for me to end up not much further on than when I started. So, I'm turning to the wealth of skill, knowledge and expertise we have here. I am about to delve into the world of 3D printing and want to create a few things to adorn a Manning Wardle Old Class I. So far, I have knocked up a wheel centre, chimney and the later version of the safety valve cover. Nothing too complex (though the wheel centre took me an age), but I'm happy with them nonetheless. However, it's the older earlier version with the flutings that I'm struggling with. It's meant to look something like this: (apologies that's rather small) It's the flutings that are causing me the problems. I have the basic shape of the cover sorted (I know, I still need to sort the top surface out and the fluting itself is not yet quite the right shape), and I can 'cut' the fluting into the main body of the cover. However, when I try to repeat this by using the 'pattern' feature (to get 12 of them, evenly spaced around the surface), I get an error: I think it has something to do with the fact the main body of the valve cover is tapered, getting narrower the further up you go. I tried repeating the same process with a parallel sided version and it worked no problem at all. It's driving me slowly mad, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Just keep any replies in layman's terms, as anything too complex will fly right over my head! Oh, and once we've found a solution to this, I have another problem too (my wife tells me I have many problems) regarding the smokebox door.......

Many thanks chaps - I don't have any cellulose thinners to hand, but I will try diluting with the etching thinners a little more. I get the sticking bit - I primed a piece of waste etch and have tried scratching it off with a finger nail first....this didn't even leave a mark....followed by a screwdriver. Even with this, I had to practically dig the stuff off, so I think it will achieve what I was hoping for in the long run!

Managed to squeeze in a quick priming session on Friday - just the body......still need to strip down and clean the chassis. Still finding my way with the painting side of things. I need to sand down this first coat with some fine grade paper as I ended up with a couple of splatters that need removing. I wonder if someone could give me a bit of advice here...... On my only other attempt at using an airbrush on my Hudswell Clarke canal tank, I used the Vallejo model air primer. This is not an etch primer, and therefore didn't adhere to the brass as well as I'd hoped, however the finish was very smooth. This time, I thought I'd give Phoenix Paints two part etch primer a try. I'm certain this will bond with the metal far better, but I struggled to get a really fine mist and therefore it's not as smooth as I'd hoped for. Towards the end of the session, I was getting a few 'splatters'. Any advice on how to correct these issues? Am I using the wrong pressure (somewhere between 20&30psi - my compressor has no tank reservoir so the pressure decreases the longer I spray)? Or is it the consistency of the paint I have mixed? Don't get me wrong - the finish is not terrible, but it could be better!

It's taken the best part of a month, but the steps have been moved, and it now runs without a problem. Even the plunger pickups seem to be doing their job! I have also played around with ways of fitting the cab roof. I wanted it to be removable, but I didn't want to go down the usual bent wire road. It might be that I'm a bit behind the times here - so feel free to stop reading here...... After a few minutes browsing on eBay, I found some very small, but very strong magnets. They are only 3mm in diameter, but very strong to the point that separating them is difficult. Even better, they were only about £1.50 for 10 of them. I bent a few pieces of waste etch, and glued a magnet to them, and then subsequently epoxied it to the top of the cab. Attaching the corresponding magnet to the underside of the roof completed the exercise. Because of the strength of the magnets, the roof is now pulled into the correct position and is held firmly in place, as demonstrated in the video below. Link to magnets: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Small-magnets-tiny-neodymium-discs-2mm-3mm-4mm-5mm-6mm-strong-craft-magnet-disk/162003918151?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 No connection - just a satisfied customer :-) Bamburgh has now had a good cleanup, and etch primer was purchased from Phoenix Paints at the Warley Show last weekend; priming is next on the to-do list.

Wired up the plunger pickups today, and am please/pleasantly surprised by how well and smooth the running is. Forgot to take a video, so you'll have to take my word for it ;-) I also trimmed off the crankpins flush with the bush, however I have realised that the cab steps foul the crankpin bush. I must have located then fractionally too far back, so I'll move them forwards a bit, and probably just thin down the bush as well. That's for another day though - time for a Sunday beer. Apologies for the grubby state - haven't got round to cleaning up yet......putting it off until just before painting as I fear it may take some time.

Just a very quick update......Bamburgh finally arrived last week after her 8000 mile journey from Brunei. Other than having a bent vacuum pipe, and being rather tarnished, she seems to have made it here relatively unscathed. Pickups need wiring and then I'll be ready to paint, although work and daughter are keeping me pretty busy at the moment, so goodness knows when that will happen!!

Hi! Are these still available? I'd be interested to take them off your hands :-) John

Albeit in 7mm scale rather than 4mm, I started off with a Hudswell Clarke Canal Tank (short tank) 0-6-0 from the old Agenoria range, which is now available again through Ragstone models. I had no prior experience of building any brass model (including any rolling stock) and while I'd never claim it to be perfect in either outcome or process, it went together into a really nice model. Well fitting parts, good instructions and reasonable castings. I'm currently building (or at least it will resume after an enforced break!) another Agenoria loco - a Manning Wardle L Class, which is going together equally well. More details on the build of the Canal Tank are on my workbench thread at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126038-manning-wardle-l-class-0-6-0-agenoria-kit/, and the Manning Wardle at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/126038-manning-wardle-l-class-0-6-0-agenoria-kit/&do=findComment&comment=3131459 John

Good to see you back posting - the 15 is looking great! I've tried various different 'baths' for mucky models, but never stumbled across anything that is properly effective. Elbow grease with various grades of Gariflex blocks and fibreglass pen (both of which make a miserable mess!), followed by a scrub with hot soapy water with a toothbrush, and a repeat scrub with Viakal and a rinse in hot water again. This leaves it nice and shiny.....for a day or two....

They look very good quality. Which 3D printer did you buy?

Finished off the balance weights on the wheels on Sunday a this was achieving by filling the space between the spokes with Milliput and then filing & sanding back (for the centre wheels). For the front/back wheels I had already glued some scrap etch into position, and just had to give the thinnest of coatings to fill in the gaps between the tyre and the centre ring. The wheels were then blackened. I use egg cartons to ikeep everything for one wheel together. After blackening, I painted the balance weights so they didn’t stand out as much. They, along with the spokes will eventually be the same shade of green as the body. I gave the chassis a quick clean and then reassembled it, and then gave the body a once over with Viakal before taking a few gratuitous shots. Thanks to a solidly built gearbox and some extra ballast in the boiler, she weighs in at a chunky 350g. I was hoping to have wire up the plungers as well by now, but time has beaten me. Time to wrap her up and sender her on the 8000+ mile journey. See you in the UK in a couple of months!

I too would be interested, so don't worry about hijacking - post away!

Final push to get the construction side of things done before packing Bamburgh up with the rest of my modelling stuff and (life in general) to be shipped back to the UK. It'll be another 10 weeks or so as it sails the seven seas back to Sheffield. Hopefully we will have somewhere to live by the time it all arrives! The roof had it's rivets dimpled out - one day I'll invest in a nice GW Models revet press, but in the mean time the gravity dimpler will do. I curved the roof by annealing first, and then rolling it between my led and a pot of cocktail sticks - wasn't quite the perfect size but not far off, and with care I managed to shape it to match the profile of the top of the cab. I'm not really sure how effective the annealing was - I was trying to do it with my gas soldering torch, but it didn't have enough beef to heat the whole sheet up at once, and although I did it in daylight, I didn't see it glow red. It seemed to bend OK afterwards though. The safety valve vent cover was soldered on and everything given a good cleanup. Next, the steps were folded up and soldered together - some fiddly small parts, but all straightforwards. These were then soldered to the underside of the footplate and checked for squareness. That completes the body - it does need a good clean and polish before being wrapped up for the next few months - more so that I can sleep easy than anything else! I popped it on the chassis for a few piccis. All that remains is to sort out the balance weights on the wheels, re-tap the crankpin bushes as some are not completely perpendicular to the crankpin, and then wire up the plunger pickups. All before the shippers come on Thursday. "Loads of time" I hear you say......it's taken me well over a year to get to this stage!!